ENJOYING GOD
By Tim Chester
The Good Book Company. 189 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978 1 784 982 812
Not that long ago I was told by a Christian publisher: ‘There is no appetite for books on theology today.’
Since then I have noticed a growing number of such books and they are not merely aimed at a niche market of pastors or seminarians. This new wave of books is clearly breaking new ground in terms of its readership.
If I had asked my friend all those years ago how he thought a book on the Trinity might fare in the popular market, I’m pretty sure he would have laughed out loud. But here is a book on the Trinity, indeed one that is about ‘enjoying’ the Trinitarian God and it has every reason to be well received, even by those who might instinctively struggle over the word ‘Trinity’.
Wide-ranging
This book is wide-ranging in many ways. In a relatively short space it takes us through many different facets of the Bible’s teaching about God. And it does so by linking them to an equally wide range of life-situations, from the mundane to the sublime.
One of the book’s great strengths is its simplicity. Without compromising on the depth of the theology, Tim Chester expresses rich truths about God in simple language, but without being simplistic. The fact that he repeatedly quotes from the Early Church Fathers, Protestant Reformers, Puritans and some of the great preachers of the past reinforces the ‘weight’ of the book. But also the fact that he uses illustrations a child can understand and relates each aspect of God to the most everyday issues of life brings the greatest of truths ‘down to earth’ in the best sense.
Refreshing
This is a refreshing book. One that any pastor could use to get his people excited about theology. It fleshes out that often-forgotten but vital component of our ‘chief end’ as human beings – to ‘… enjoy God forever’.
